I don't even know
by Spidermunkee
Summary: When Freed and Laxus are suddenly turned back into children during a highly stressful, S-class mission, the rest of the Fairy Tail guild don't quite know how to respond. But Lucy has questions, and the first one she wants answered is: why in the world is Freed acting like a mangy, wild animal?


When Freed and Laxus are suddenly turned back into children during a highly stressful, S-class mission, the rest of the Fairy Tail guild don't quite know how to respond. But Lucy has questions, and the first one she wants answered is: why in the world is Freed acting like a mangy, wild animal?

Chapter One: Animal

The day was going particularly normal until three o'clock. As the door burst in, no doubt admitting some stupid brute looking for a challenge, Lucy mourned her peace and quiet, hanging her head and dreading the brawl about to start. A loud snarl that didn't sound like it belonged to a person raised Lucy's head from its dejected state, and she couldn't quite hold in her gasp of shock at the sight that greeted her.

Trudging through the door were half of the Thunder God tribe, Bickslow and Evergreen, with a blond kid trailing after them solemnly, blue eyes worried and glancing around the guild with a frantic speed. In Bixlow's arms, the cause for concern, was another child, except this child was dirty, thrashing, and his eyes were a deep black with glowing purple pupils, narrowed in a terrifying rage. As Lucy watched, the child clamped sharp teeth down onto Bixlow's arm and shook his head like a dog would a piece of meet. Bixlow's mouth tightened, but so did his hold on the child.

"What is the meaning of this?" Erza demanded in the sudden silence.

Evergreen seemed to deflate, glancing from Erza to the blond kid holding onto her tattered skirt. "Can you grab Master Makarov, Mira?" she asked lowly, fingers carding into the blond child's hair.

"No need," a voice said from behind Lucy's place at the bar, and she shrieked as he appeared next to her. "I came as soon as I heard the quiet."

"Gramps!" the blond kid exclaimed, and everyone simultaneously repeated after him in shock.

"Is that Laxus?" Gray asked above the noise. Lucy watched as the little boy (Laxus, this little boy is Laxus) scowled over at him.

"Of course it's me! Who are you?"

"Enough," Makarov commanded, and all the noise died down. Makarov hopped down from the bar counter, striding over to pull Laxus into a hug. "Laxus, I'm glad you're home."

Lucy watched as Laxus gripped the back of Makarov's shirt, still unable to process this sudden turn of events.

"Gramps, what's going on? Who are these people? Why won't they let Freed go?" Laxus's voice was slightly muffled due to stuffing his face into Makarov's coat, but the rest of the guild managed to hear him, and more than one person glanced over to the little boy still growling and thrashing in Bickslow's arms, jaws dropping in shock.

"Freed?" Makarov asked, and looked over as well. His eyes seemed to sadden as he watched the little boy howl, and he sighed heavily. "Oh, Freed."

"Can you get them to put him down, Gramps?" Laxus asked, and Lucy couldn't stop comparing this soft spoken boy to the man that would demand things and expect to be obeyed. "He's scared."

"Bickslow," Makarov nodded, and Bickslow's arms dropped the little boy.

It happened so fast.

One second the boy was suspended in the air, the next Bickslow was on the ground and groaning, and the boy was in Laxus's arms, snuffling and making cooing noises while he buried himself into Laxus's clothes, as close as he could get to the boy. If it wasn't so damn strange, Lucy would have thought it was sweet.

"Bix, you alright?" Evergreen asked, helping him up.

"Yeah," he grunted, and his tiki babies pushed against his back to hold him upright. "I forgot how fast the brat was."

"Wait," Warden said, hands raised, shaking his head. "This is really Freed? Why's he acting like a wild animal?"

"He's not an animal!" Laxus shouted, pulling Freed even closer. His voice lowered, almost as if he was talking to himself, gentle and sincere, "You're not an animal, Freed, okay? You're not an animal."

Freed cooed again, nuzzling Laxus's chin, getting the boy to giggle. Lucy seriously thought this day couldn't get any stranger.

Makarov sighed heavily, hand running over his forehead in a back and forth motion, clearly feeling a headache coming on. "What happened?" he asked, and everyone's eyes turned to Bixlow and Evergreen.

Evergreen straightened up from her slouch against the door, glasses flashing from the overhead lighting. "We were ambushed on our way home from our mission. We had just finished clearing up the dark guild threatening a town outside of Hargeon, so we were already tired and hurting."

"There were at least three dozen of them," Bickslow continued, and it was so strange to see his face so solemn, probably more so than seeing Freed (calm, under control Freed) turned into a wild child. "We didn't see them coming and they got the drop on us, but most of them weren't that powerful. Turns out they were just the distraction while the real threat was just beyond the tree line."

"As we were fighting, Freed and Laxus seemed to be shrinking, and their attacks got slower and less powerful." Evergreen pushed her glasses up, mouth tight. "They were de-aging right before our eyes. It took some time to find the man responsible. but eventually we managed to take him down. Unfortunately stopping him only stopped the spell, not reverse it. We tried to get the counter spell out of him, but he seemed to chew on something -"

"He killed himself rather than telling us what he knew," Bickslow finished lowly when Evergreen's voice dropped along with her eyes. Mutters of shock ran throughout the people gathered there.

"But why did the spell only affect Freed and Laxus?" Levy asked to Lucy's right.

"My guess is because they were the biggest threat, but we don't know anything for certain," Evergreen admitted, crossing her arms defensively.

"Laxus," Makarov called out, and the blond looked up from Freed, who was sniffing his armpit (What the hell? Lucy's brain asked, and Lucy was tempted to shrug at it.).

"Yeah, Gramps?" Laxus interrupted himself to giggle when Freed crawled under his large shirt and pop his head through the head-hole, glancing around like a curious meerkat. The whole guild seemed to giggle with him.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Makarov asked, though his voice had softened considerably, Freed's actions having deflated his burning desire to destroy something.

"Uh," Laxus started, brows furrowing and eyes on Freed as the boy seemed to finally settle, tucking close and nosing Laxus's shoulder with a deep grumble. "Jee and I had gotten Freed out of that crazy house, and I just finished naming him - then I woke up with all these guys passed out around me and these two yelling at this guy. He fell unconscious and then Freed was there, and now I'm here."

"Naming Freed?" Lucy decided to ask, curiosity getting the best of her. Laxus glanced over to her and nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah, he didn't have a name," he elaborated. "He was locked up for so long, and now he's free, so I named him Freed."

There was silence for a very long moment, everyone taking in the blunt words only a kid could get away with, with a delicate consideration. Freed was named by Laxus. It seemed wonders never ceased.

"Locked up?" Levy asked quietly. The entire guild hall seemed to lean forward to hear the next words.

Laxus seemed to curl around the small boy tucked safely in his arms, still inside that giant shirt, looking vulnerable but would give a good fight. "Jee and I found this creepy abandoned house in these woods, and it was raining so we decided to try and rest up there. It was boarded and there were these runes all over it, and Jee said they were put there to keep a demon inside -"

Laxus paused to glance down at the calm boy grunting and cooing and snuffling softly against his neck. Lucy thought Freed was probably the most adorable kid she had ever met, and also the most heartbreaking.

"Well, when Jee broke the wards, there was this loud howl, like those wolves Gramps took me to see once, and then there were these eyes glowing inside the house. Freed was so scary, I thought I was going to die, but Jee was so cool! He wasn't scared at all, he just walked right in like he owned the place, and he managed to dodge Freed's attack! Freed is super strong, way stronger than me, and Jee just stepped sideways like the magic Freed threw was a paper airplane!" Laxus's eyes were wide in remembrance, bright and happy, and Freed seemed to pick up on it for he cooed more audibly, nuzzling closer and purring.

Lucy was stuck on the fact that Laxus said Freed was stronger than him. She remembered how Laxus had the Lightning Dragon Slayer lacrima surgically put into him, but it was still a weird thought for Freed to be stronger than Laxus, despite how scary Freed could be when he was angry or determined.

"You should have seen Freed, he really did look like a demon," Laxus gushed, into his story now, using small gestures to get his sincerity across. "His eyes had black veins all around them, and his teeth were super long and sharp, and his nails were like claws, and he was so low to the ground, I didn't know he could stand!

"Jee just picked him up like he was nothing and hugged him! I think Jee did a spell or something to get him to calm down, because Freed just got really quiet and didn't fight back anymore! It was so cool!

"But then Freed started crying, and Jee kept asking him what was wrong, but Freed just kept crying." Laxus paused again to run his fingers through Freed's mangy long hair, smiling at the happy coo Freed let out. "That was when we found out Freed didn't know what we were saying. Jee said because Freed wasn't saying anything, just making noises, it meant that Freed didn't know how to talk at all. He said Freed was like a little baby. And because he was like a baby, and he couldn't talk, we couldn't get a name. Jee asked me if I knew any good names, and I told him that since Freed was free now, he should always be free and always remember that he was free. And so I named him Freed!"


End file.
